In theory, the election of public officials is the best way to govern.  
In practice, however, it isn't.

The reason that elections are no longer the best method of selecting 
public officials is that elections can be (and usually are) rigged.  
The late Josef Stalin reportedly once commented:  "It's not who votes 
that counts, it's who counts the votes."  Over the past twenty years in 
the United State there have been myriad occurrences of election fraud; 
years ago one precinct reported over 300 votes cast on election day, 
but then the ballot box was opened later there were only fifty ballots 
in it.  Unfortunately that was not an isolated occurrence, many 
precincts have reported more votes cast than people who actually voted.

Another problem with elections in this country is voter suppression.  
Some suppression is done by local officials, but in my view a bigger 
problem is people who hang around polling places for the purpose of 
intimidating voters.

Yet another problem with elections in this country is the fact that 
politicians literally buy peoples' votes by promising them all sorts 
of "free" government "benefits."  Many people will reliably vote for 
things they think someone else will have to pay for - and for 
candidates who will promise them those things.  Unfortunately 
those "free" government "benefits" have literally bankrupted this 
country's government; the government's funded and unfunded liabilities 
far exceed the value of its assets and any reasonable estimate of its 
future revenue - and that's a pretty good definition of bankruptcy.  It 
should also be noted that the government is currently overspending its 
income by more than a trillion dollars a year.

Some people, particularly but not exclusively those of the leftist 
persuasion, refuse to accept the results of elections and take to the 
streets in protests of election results they don't like - that sort of 
thing used to be called a riot but today it has become a legitimate 
form of political expression.  That's one thing I've noted about the 
political left wing in this country - they're all for elections - until 
they lose one, the presidential election of 2016 being a case in point.

If elections are no longer the best method of selecting public 
officials, how should we do it?  My personal preference is to eliminate 
elections entirely and adopt a random selection process that selectes 
citizens from within the jurisdiction of the office to serve in the 
position for one and only one term of office.  This would eliminate 
elected office as a full-time career, eliminate the bribery 
of "campaign contributions," eliminate the endless campaigning for 
office, eliminate legislation designed to put and/or keep politicians 
in office, and destroy the power of the political parties.  None of 
those is a bad idea in my opinion.  It might also cause students to pay 
a bit more attention in history, civics and government classes.
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